Pages

Sunday, February 5, 2012

RootsTech 2012 Recap 3

Saturday was the final day of RootsTech 2012. I watched Ancestry.com's morning keynote online in my hotel room while I packed some of my things.

After a brief visit with others at the media hub, I caught the last half of Lisa Louise Cooke's "Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101." I know more than 101 about these topics, but sometimes I like to go to beginning tech sessions and watch the audience. See their reactions and what kinds of questions they ask. It helps me gauge where the genealogy community as a whole is in terms of tech skills. Lisa is a great speaker. Hopefully she encouraged a few audience members to start their own blogs.

The second session I attended was "Future of FamilySearch Family Tree" with Ron Tanner. He's a very funny guy. We got a glimpse of the "Family Tree" which will be available for all users hopefully by the end of the year. For the non-LDS crew out there, Family Tree is a lot like WikiTree with the spirit of collaboration at the forefront. People working together to document the lives of our ancestors. We will be able to attach documents, sources and eventually photos. All of this information will be free, available to the public and stored in Granite Mountain indefinitely.

After a quick lunch, I did a final lap around the exhibit hall. I talked to a lot of people. Conference sessions are great, but the real education on the genealogy industry comes from the floor. I learned a lot "off the record" this week.

RootsTech 2012 drew to a close in the afternoon. Sue Maxwell of Granite Genealogy and her wonderful husband picked me up from my hotel, and Lisa Louise Cooke from her hotel and gave us a tour of the valley and hills. It was so nice because all I've ever seen is the road from the airport to downtown.

Our tour led to the other side of the mountain and we landed at the home of Kim and Janet Hovorka, friends of mine and owners of Family ChartMasters. They hosted a wonderful party for friends, family, bloggers, speakers and others at RootsTech. It was a wonderful evening, and a chance to visit with people who are often dashing from one place to another during conferences. I left that evening feeling very happy and lucky to have so many genealogy friends.

3 comments:

You're absolutely right about the real education coming from the floor. It makes me feel less bad about the sessions I didn't get to - and I can catch some of them on the website later. When I get my strength back!

After last night I am "feeling very happy and lucky to have so many genealogy friends" too but also sad you all had to leave. :)Thanks so much for coming. And for being such a bright spot in the genealogy community.